Community banks have long played an important role in the U.S. economy, providing loans and other financial services to households and small businesses within their local markets. In recent years, technological and legal developments, as well as changes in the business strategies of larger banks...

Bank lending to small firms in the U.S. fell substantially during the recent financial crisis and the ensuing recession. Because small firms account for a disproportionate share of new job creation, lending to these firms could have important implications for the pace of economic recovery. A...

A large and growing number of low-to-moderate income U.S. households rely upon alternative financial service providers (AFSPs) for a variety of credit products and transaction services, including payday loans, pawn loans, automobile title loans, tax refund anticipation loans and check-cashing...

This article presents empirical evidence concerning the value of franchise bidding competition as a means of controlling natural monopoly behavior. The analysis focuses on the cable television industry, using data collected in a survey of local government officials in cabled communities...

In the United States, antitrust authorities rely heavily on numerical measures of local banking market concentration such as the Herfindahl Hirschmann Index to assess the likely competitive effects of proposed bank mergers and acquisitions. This approach to antitrust enforcement relies on two...

This article provides empirical evidence on the effects of alternative market structures and ownership modes on prices and service offerings in the cable television industry. We analyze the underlying characteristics and behavior of competing versus monopoly operators on the one hand, and...

Several recent articles have studied the competitive effects of horizontal mergers by examining rival firms' stock price reactions to the merger announcement and subsequent antitrust challenge. These articles have consistently failed to find any evidence of anticompetitive effects. This article...

This article uses financial data to measure the effects of the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and subsequent legislative and judicial developments on firms in the railroad industry. The results indicate that the Interstate Commerce Act had a significant positive impact on...